Laid down and gave my attention to Necromantia - Scarlet Evil Witching Black last night, and I really enjoyed it. Some thoughts, upon first listen:

*The manner in which the tracks are arranged works very well. Start with the most blasting and straightforward track, and allow the album to open up as it progresses. Track 4, the synthesizer one, is a well-situated and pleasant break from the metal aesthetics.*The creative (sometimes almost wacky) elements of timbre and rhythm always augment the songs, instead of acting as random distractions.*The atmosphere is strong and dark, yet the riffs and structures remain tangible and exciting (compare to many modern bands that try to be atmospheric...boring).

Finally coming to Profanatica's Thy Kingdom Cum; the repetition of guitar riffs evokes a sarcasm of the three Gospel books. Man & Jinn provokes an excellent trance and with this third release alongside the others I am finding a refinement in that conception of rumbling harmony. THe bass is always lurid. Profanatica remains my favorite U.S. Black Metal.

I firmly believe Profanatica to be the best black metal band active today.

I thought Thy Kingdom Cum left a lot to be desired. It felt much drier than Disgusting Blasphemies or the like.

Drier? It's their most musically dense album! It's a lot like an experimental Dethrone the Son of God in that they didn't write riffs and melodies that would appeal to anyone. I think I said this earlier but I believe its intent was to blaspheme black metal convention and Profanatica at least as one might have come to expect them to sound.

I just found a lot of the riffs to be extremely out of place, uninspired, and annoying. I love DtSoG but this does nothing for me. I'm probably gonna be listening to it again though because your praise of it piques my curiosity.

I just found a lot of the riffs to be extremely out of place, uninspired, and annoying. I love DtSoG but this does nothing for me. I'm probably gonna be listening to it again though because your praise of it piques my curiosity.

I'm convinced that what you describe was the objective of the album. Hence the comparison to the first Havohej album. It is black metal in the way nobody wants to hear it. Compare it to the latest Demoncy for example. The album, while excellent, plays black metal the way people want and expect. They play ideas that, while containing emotional depth, are desirable. Profanatica have never really been about riffs so much as energy, motion and feeling. Which is why they get away with angular, often redundant to idiotic riffs that border child-like. It's never been about the musical ideas, but the more subconscious primal cadence. With the latest album they take that and expand it into the realm of melody.

I've found that the best way to experience Profanatica is to put it on without actively listening to it. It only makes sense when it is felt. I doubt that makes any sense. It's difficult for me to relay my experience.

Started on a playlist that will probably end by tomorrow evening as I am able to listen throughout a great part of the day and evening.

Basically, it's Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungs , with a classic Black Metal albums in between. Started off with The Celtic Winter, and then into Das Rheingold.The other Black Metal albums presiding the other three sections are Transilvanian Hunger, Det Frysende Nordariket and Dol Goldur. To close the playlist I placed Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem after Gotterdammerung.

It may be someone thinks this interrupts the feeling of the opera. But I think considering the fact that each of the sections is from 2 to 4 hours long, I am not sure this is a valid point. You 'd need to take breaks from it anyway. And I will, and while in the break submerge into the small window into spiritual worlds those Black Metal albums present us with.

A lot of early black metal. There is just something that is so perfect about the aggressiveness of Thrash Metal and the grittiness of Black Metal. Bathroy, Sodom, and Venom: all great black metal bands from the '80s.

Fenrir, I honestly don't know how you can listen to metal and classical back to back. I mean, it's great that you can and I can certainly appreciate the deeper link between various, seemingly contrasting forms of music, but my own experiences as a listener would find the abrupt jump from one 'sound texture' to the next a bit jarring.